


Examination

by Talyesin



Series: Aftermath on Finite Earths [12]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 17:02:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15441687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talyesin/pseuds/Talyesin





	Examination

Earth 4  
Hub City

 

"I still don't understand what we're doing here," Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle asked, as he and his companions crept stealthily through the dimly lit corridors of the offices of Kord Industries' Hub City offices.

"Do you want your cover blown?" the Question asked, pointing toward the security access panel on the high energy research lab door.

Beetle sighed. Ever since they had begun investigating Captain Atom's attack on Vic Sage, the Question – never one to be particularly forthcoming – had become increasingly enigmatic. Answering direct questions with a question was annoying enough, but the last couple of days, the so‑called answers hadn't even been in the same ballpark as the question asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nightshade asked for Blue Beetle as he keyed in the security access code to the high energy research lab.

The doors opened with a shliff! noise – Kord had specifically designed them to do so, quintessential sci‑fi geek that he was – and the three Sentinels of Justice stepped into the lab.

"Nightshade, want to take care of the cameras?" Blue Beetle asked quietly. Nightshade nodded and the room grew as dark as midnight.

"So why are we breaking into my own lab?" Blue Beetle asked in a hushed voice. The Question looked at him – or at least, Ted assumed the Question was looking at him, it was difficult to tell sometimes with that faceless mask he hadn't removed in days, not even to eat or drink – and said nothing, but pointed at a piece of equipment at the far end of the lab.

"The atomic spectrometer?" Blue Beetle asked. "Why didn't you just say so? I could have requisitioned it and‑"

"You're a scientist, Kord, so why don't you think for a minute?" Question interrupted in a harsh whisper.

"Deniability," Nightshade answered. "This way no one can link Ted Kord to whatever it is we're doing here."

"So what are we doing here?" Blue Beetle asked, then answered his own question. "You want me to use the atomic spectrometer on the rubble we took from the newsroom, right? But the spectrometer only measures the particular wavelength of a radioactive substance. We know the wavelength of this radiation is going to match the same wavelength that Captain Atom emits."

"Will it? Are you sure?"

"Okay, let's make sure," Beetle answered with a sigh. Not for the first time he wondered about the Question's sanity.

He placed the pieces of mildly radioactive rubble into the atomic spectrometer and powered it up. Pushing back his goggles and hood – mildly embarrassed, still, that his hairline had begun to receed noticeably – he leaned into the eyepieces that would allow him to view the radioactive wavelength as a series of colours emanating from the rubble. From experience he knew that Captain Atom's particular wavelength was a silvery‑blue colour, so what he saw in the eyepieces surprised him. Instead of the silvery‑blue he'd been expecting, the rubble was glowing a bright orange.

"Huh?" Beetle said. "This doesn't make any sense."

"What is it?" the Question asked, almost sounding as if he knew the answer already.

"According to these readings, you weren't – sorry, Vic Sage wasn't attacked by Captain Atom at all."

"Then who?" Nightshade asked. "You told us your attacker looked exactly like Captain Atom."

"An exact duplicate," the Question actually answered. "Who, then, has the ability to disguise themselves so completely, to fly, and to project radioactive blasts?"

"No one I know," Blue Beetle said, powering down the atomic spectrometer.

"And there's one other question that needs answering," Nightshade said.

"Oh?" both of her teammates asked simultaneously.

"What's happened to Captain Atom?"


End file.
